Sunday, December 09, 2007

Rumors are flying that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, director and film maker of "Super Size Me" and "30 Days" fame may have done what the United States government has failed to do for the last six years ... find Osama bin Laden.

The speculation first began at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where Spurlock showed a select group of potential buyers 15 minutes of footage from his new documentary, "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" The film follows Spurlock through the Middle East in his search for the elusive leader of al-Qaida. According to Slashfilm.com, The Weinstein Co. quickly snapped up the picture after seeing the clips.

Adding to the belief, Daniel Marracino, the film's director of photography, is quoted in Variety, saying of the movie, "We've definitely got the Holy Grail."

Whether this is just a genius publicity ploy or if Spurlock actually found bin Laden has yet to be revealed, but the answer should come next year, when the documentary is slated to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Ok what happens when, after trillions of Olympic Games, people start to run out of ideas for animal mascots? well ... thats when crazy Canadians just say CRYPTO MUNDO ! and decide its time to make Bigfoot and Thunderbirds their official 2010 Winter Olympic Game mascots.

How freakin cool is that! To be exact ... the cryptozoological beasties are Quatchi the Sasquatch, Miga the Sea Bear, and Sumi the Thunderbird. The mythical creatures are the work of Vancouver-based Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy of Meomi Design.

None of the mascots actually exist in real life: Miga the Sea Bear is a combination of an orca and a Kermode bear that her designers say likes surfing and snowboarding, and lives off the coast of Vancouver Island. Her black costume includes a fin coming out of her head.

Sumi, the Paralympic mascot, is a horned-hat-wearing Thunderbird from Whistler that likes alpine skiing.

And Quatchi is the first Sasquatch in history to actually make an appearance before human beings. The young sasquatch, complete with blue earmuffs, likes hockey, photography and travel, and, given his hulking size, dreams of being a goalie.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Where do you draw the line between corporate sellouts and successful business practices? Bluetongue Brewery, a boutique beer brewer on the east coast of Australia has just been bought out by none other than .... wait for it. Coca Cola, well Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) to be exact.

For me its a shame, seeing such a brand fade into the giant multinational corporation hands of the world famous Coke ribbon. what keeps these brands successful in my eyes is their independent ethic, and niche practices that get squashed as soon as people try and compete on a larger scale against the Calton United's of the world. i mean you've gotta ask the question .. what’s more important, selling more product for profit? or losing the very character which makes your brand successful. I guess when the men with deep pockets come a knocking for buyouts, not many "do it for the love" anymore .... but then I guess we all saw it coming when they sold a 50% share to the Singleton Group (headed by Advertising and Banking executives) can anyone say ... Buy Sell, Buy Sell.

"We have been looking for a local premium beer brand for some time, and we couldn't have found anything more authentically Australian than Bluetongue," CCA chief executive Terry Davis said.

Mr Davis said the capacity of the existing Bluetongue brewery would be expanded by about 50 per cent initially but would ultimately be used to produce smaller-run and speciality beers. The flagship Bluetongue lager would switch to PacBev's new operation, a 50 million litre brewery to be built somewhere on the east coast.

"We just couldn't make enough beer. We could have built a new brewery, but we'd have been up against Lion Nathan, Foster's, a resurgent Coopers and now Coke is building one, so I'd rather let production be someone else's worry," he said.

I tend to delve into all things "Right Brain". Using Graphic Design as a creative outlet and profession to stop myself from strapping my ass to a 100 foot Zeppelin, and circumnavigating the Earth.
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